Originally posted on dr. p.l. (paul) thomas: It was bad enough when NPR whitewashed the “grit” narrative, but now NPR is whitewashing charter schools and disaster capitalism in New Orleans. Framed as “remarkable changes,” erasing public schools and firing all public school faculty (a significant percentage of the black middle class in New Orleans) are whitewashed beneath… Read more

Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: Last May, Ruth Conniff, editor of “The Progressive,” joined a group of other women on a tour of voucher schools in Milwaukee. The others included another journalist, a state legislator, and Milwaukee grandmothers Gail Hicks and Marva Herndon. “Herndon and Hicks formed a group called Women Committed to an… Read more

Originally posted on the EARTH ABIDES project: After several months, the Earth Abides Project weblog is back. The long “vacation” was necessary as this writer wandered for a time, then settled in to a summer of volunteering as a Camp Host in an isolated Forest Service Campground. But the volunteer summer is ending, so there’s… Read more

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: The art of manipulation and fooling people has become an industry of deception. For instance, Katie Couric interviews Melinda Gates about the Gates Foundation’s pledge to donate $1 million to DonorsChoose. Melinda Gates says that million will go to help teachers. To discover the obvious, The… Read more